CHAPTER
14
WHO IS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST?
By Eddie Chumney
Direct Link to Author’s
website: http://www.hebroots.org/bridch14.html - CHAP14
In
this book, we conducted a comprehensive Biblical study so that we could answer
the question, "Who is the Bride of Christ?"
In doing so, we looked at the Biblical characteristics of the Bride of Christ
in a step-by-step manner. From our studies, we were able to understand that not
all believers in Jesus as Messiah will be the Bride of Christ. However, all
believers in Jesus as Messiah will be in heaven. God's perfect Will for every
believer is to be saved by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and
Savior AND grow from being a baby believer to a spiritually mature believer.
Those individuals who are saved and who grow to spiritual maturity will be the
Bride of Christ. Those believers who practice and follow the ways of the world
and who do not grow in spiritual knowledge and understanding of God and His
kingdom will be like the five foolish virgins who were not ready when the
bridegroom came to get his bride.
While
no believer is saved by doing good works, God requires that all believers live
sanctified and holy lives separated from the ways and practices of the world
and dedicated and consecrated unto God and unto His kingdom. By doing so, those
believers will be led by the Spirit of God and grow to spiritual maturity and
be found to be faithful servants to God and His kingdom.
The
Bride of Christ will be a sanctified, holy and without blemish nation of people
unto God. She will be a glorified Bride and her glory will be seen as a witness
in all the earth. She will be a praise and honor unto God while being a
faithful servant unto Him. She will love God with all her heart, mind, soul and
strength. She will seek God, His ways and how to please Him at all times. She
will not seek her own pleasures or her own will but will submit to do God's
perfect Will in her life. She will overcome the desires of the world and the
spiritual obstacles that stand in her way from being perfectly acceptable to
her heavenly Bridegroom.
The
Bride of Christ will be a royal priesthood. Just as it was the duty of the
priests in the Old Testament to teach God's people His Torah, even so, it will
be the duty of God's Bride to teach God's people about His Torah/Word and His
infinite ways for all eternity. Those who keep the commandments (Torah/Word) of
God and teach others to do so will be great in the kingdom of God. Those who
break the commandments (Torah/Word) of God and teach others to do so will be
called least in the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:19). The Bride of Christ
will keep the commandments of God and have the right to the tree of life which
is the Torah (Revelation 22:14).
The
Bride of Christ will be a people after God's own heart just like David who
loved God's Torah/Word and kept His commandments. She will teach God's Torah to
the nations of the world during the Messianic Age (Isaiah 2:2-3).
During eternity, she will teach all believers in heaven the riches of the Torah
of God to those believers who will not be the Bride of Christ.
The
Bride of Christ has a deep personal relationship with God and a deep spiritual
intimacy with Him. She will have clean hands and a pure heart unto God. While
in heaven, she will live and dwell in the presence of God and His glory. She
will dwell with God in the city of the Bride, the heavenly Jerusalem, for all
eternity. She is like the most precious of stones and a pearl of great price.
So,
these are some of the Biblical characteristics of the Bride of Christ. But, who
is the Bride of Christ? This book makes NO ATTEMPT
to judge any individual member of the family of God to determine if they are
the Bride of Christ. It is my desire that every reader who reads this book will
be the Bride of Christ. It is my desire that I will be the Bride of Christ.
However, only God can judge the hearts and lives of all believers to determine
who is the Bride of Christ and who is not. It is the believer's responsibility
to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength so that God's Spirit
can lead you and guide you in all the truth so that you can bear much fruit in
the kingdom of God for His glory.
It
has been God's desire since He created Adam in the Garden of Eden to live with
man and to dwell with His Bride for all eternity. Because of man's sin and
disobedience, God's plan has had to be delayed until He redeemed man by sending
Jesus the Messiah and our heavenly Bridegroom to purchase and obtain a Bride
through the shedding of His blood on the tree of Calvary. From the time that
Jesus was resurrected and ascended unto the throne of God, God has been
preparing a heavenly home for his Bride. The longsuffering and patience of God
to live and dwell with His Bride is coming to a close. Soon the heavenly shofar
will be blown and the cry will be made in the heavens, "Behold
the bridegroom cometh!"(Matthew 25:6)
The
final words of Jesus to his Church before He comes for His Bride is found in Revelation
22:16 as it is written:
" I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the
bright and morning star. "
May
all those who love His appearing cry unto Him the words of Revelation 22:17
as it is written:
" And the Spirit and the bride say, COME, And let him that
heareth say, COME. And let him that is athirst COME. And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely. "